By Ayo Kehinde, Lagos
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Ex VP Atiku Abukakar at a public event in Lagos, recently.
Following the gale of defections that is hitting the ruling All Progressives Congress with the mass exodus of members elected on its platform to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, popular blogger, Japheth Omojuwa yesterday conducted an online poll to test the public popularity rating of Atiku Abubakar, a leading aspirant for the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the presidential election of 2019, Senate President, Bukola Saraki and former Governor of Kano State, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, suspected to be eyeing the PDP presidential ticket.
Kwankwaso who is known to have presidential has defected to the PDP, while Saraki still remains in APC. Saraki has not defected to the opposition party though there are indications that he will follow suit. Atiku had earlier in December of 2017 rejoined the PDP, a party he had helped found at inception in 1998.
In the twitter online poll, which ended on Tuesday, Atiku Abubakar polled 42 per cent compared to Saraki’s 37per cent and Kwankwaso’s 15per cent with the other candidates settling for 6 per cent of the votes.
The poll conducted on the heels of the defections of a sizeable number of Senators and members of the House of Representatives from the ruling All Progressives Congress to the Peoples Democratic Party was ostensibly to gauge the popularity of the defectors with presidential ambition versus Atiku as far as the PDP ticket is concerned.
Voters were asked: ‘Who will emerge the PDP candidate for 2019’. The choices were listed as Bukola Saraki, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Kwankwaso and Other (Reply with name).
This is one in a series of polls in which Atiku has come out tops. In a massive online poll that attracted almost 30,000 votes, Atiku vanquished President Muhammadu Buhari and other likely PDP contenders – Governors Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo and Aminu Tambuwal of Gombe and Sokoto states respectively. Senator Ben Murray-Bruce conducted the poll.
In answer to the question ‘If the 2019 Nigerian Presidential election were to hold today and the candidates are as below, who would you vote for?’, 44 per cent said they would vote for Atiku Abubakar. This compares to 31 per cent for President Buhari, 17 per cent for Dankwambo and 8 per cent for Tambuwal.
This result is also consistent with a number of recent polls, including those done by well known supporters of President Buhari, who had following the third anniversary of the administration on May 29 initiated polls ostensibly to test the popularity of the incumbent President.
On June 6, 2018, the former Vice President in two polls conducted simultaneously by Omojuwa defeated Buhari. In the first poll Atiku polled 35 per cent of the votes compared to Buhari’s 32 per cent. In the second poll, Atiku secured 39 per cent of the votes while Buhari earned 34 per cent of the votes.
A week earlier, Atiku had also trounced other aspirants in another poll conducted by pro APC consultant, Mark Essien. Atiku polled 43 per cent compared to Buhari’s 35 per cent.
In yet another poll conducted by @YNaija, Nigeria’s most successful youth blog run by Red Media, who played a key role in Buhari’s media during the 2015 elections, Atiku handed Buhari a crushing defeat of 70 per cent versus 19 per cent.
